18 BY-WAYS AND BIRD-NOTES. 



It has been told of the mocking-birds that, 

 in Louisiana and other Southern regions, when 

 such of them as have taken a summer jaunt to 

 New England or Pennsylvania return to the 

 magnolia and orange groves in late autumn, 

 they are attacked by their resident brethren. 

 My observation has not tended to verify this. 

 Nor can I bear testimony to the bravery and 

 fighting qualities of the mocking-bird. The 

 blue-bird whips it, driving it hither and yon at 

 will, though not more than half its size. It is, 

 however, a famous scold and blusterer, accom- 

 plishing a good deal by fierce threats and 

 savage demonstrations. I do not believe the 

 story about it killing snakes. It would be a 

 very small and weak reptile that such a bird 

 could kill, being so poorly armed for warlike 

 exploits. 



On a pedestrian tour through the loveliest 

 and loneliest part of Middle Florida, I was 

 struck with the strong contrast between the 

 negroes and the white people as to the extent 

 and accuracy of their ornithological knowledge, 

 a contrast almost as marked as that of color. 

 I could get no information from the whites. 

 They had never paid any attention to mocking- 

 birds. The subject appeared to them too 

 slight and trivial to be worth any study. But 

 the negroes were sometimes enthusiastic, al- 

 ways interested and interesting. Somehow 

 there has always seemed to me a fine touch of 

 power in the way a cabin, a few banana-stalks, 

 a plum-tree or two, and a straggling bower of 

 grape-vines get themselves together for the 

 use of indolent negroes and luxury-loving 

 mocking-birds. I have fancied it, or else there 

 is a marked preference shown by the songster 



